The pair were homesick schoolboy players learning the game in Southampton feeling the pain of exile.

They had been home for Christmas - Maddison in Darlington and Shearer in Newcastle - and the warmth and normality threw their isolation into sharp relief. And it was time to get the train back South.

“It wasn’t easy being at the other end of the country,” explained the former Boro midfielder turned microphone man.

“Leaving your family so young was tough. I was 14, 15. I really struggled, I’m not going to lie. It’s a big wrench for a young kid, and that’s what I was. A kid.

“I was in digs I didn’t like. Not that the people weren’t nice but I wasn’t happy. I didn’t feel I fitted in. I was homesick. I wasn’t enjoying my football and I was scared it was going to go wrong and it would be over before I’d started.

“I used to spend all my time at Alan Shearer’s digs. He was from the North-east, the same age as me and we hit it off. But he felt the same. He was homesick too. In fact both of us nearly wrapped it all in. Seriously.

“I remember coming home that first Christmas and I was so happy. That’s when you realise exactly how much you have missed home and your family - but when it came to going back I was in tears. I really didn’t want to go.

“My mam and dad were great and built me back up and they talked me round because they knew football was my dream and if I didn’t go back then I’d always regret it.

“I phoned Shearer up and he’d been through exactly the same thing in Newcastle. He told me point blank he wasn’t going back and I had to persuade him that if I was going he had to too because I didn’t want to be left on my own.

“But when I got on the train at Darlo I still wasn’t really sure that he would be on it. He was. And that was the start of a big journey for us.”

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That was the low point. For both hot prospects, things were going to improve. They were past the worst.

“Things just got better for us after that,” continued Maddison.

“I was at Shearer’s digs one night and the people he lived with asked me if I was happy. I blurted everything out and they just asked straight out if I wanted to move in. I said yes and they sorted it out with the club. After that things got better.

“They are lovely people. I got on really well there. It was like being part of a family again. I settled down and started to enjoy life and enjoy my football. That was a really important moment in my life. They are really good friends now. In fact I’m the godfather of their daughter.”

That was the start of six years of the pair living together as they carved out careers and a strong bond that lasts to this day.

“Me and Alan got on really well. We grew up together and learned the game together and obviously later I was his best man.

“We laughed a lot. We encouraged each other. It’s really important to have a good friend in that situation to help you through. A lot of really talented young footballers drop out at that point and that’s a shame.

“There was a lot of competition between us mind. Shearer got into the first team before me. He made his debut when he was 17 and scored a hat-trick against Arsenal, which isn’t bad is it?

“I made mine at 18, at Plough Lane, Wimbledon, which isn’t quite as glamorous. I scored as well. It never got the headlines he did but I made sure he knew.”

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Despite the sticky start Maddison, now 47, admits Southampton was the right place to nurture his talent.

And he adds, he sees many similarities between them and Boro, the team was later to leave the Saints for.

“I was there 12 years,” he said. “I grew up there. I signed on schoolboy terms when I was 14, then did two years as an apprentice and at 18 I signed as a pro. And I loved it: the club, the lads I played with, the people, the city, the fans. I just loved it.

“In a lot of ways Southampton is like Boro. It’s a well run family club, very close to the supporters and the community and maybe a bit unfashionable but very passionate. Everyone knows they have to really fight to compete with the big clubs.

“They were at The Dell then which was quite a small stadium but very intimidating, very hostile and that helped keep us up in the first division for years. No-one liked going to the Dell.

“For me that atmosphere helped keep us in the first division. There were a few years where we maybe struggled a bit when it was worth vital points that were the difference between staying up and getting relegated.

“And they didn’t have money to compete with bigger teams for transfers so they had to find their own talent. And they were brilliant at that. They still are. Look at Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott, Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana. There has always been a conveyor belt of talent."

Neil Maddison

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Maddison adds: “When I was there the youth team was incredible. Amazing. There was Alan Shearer and Matt Le Tissier, the Wallace Brothers, Francis Benali, Jason Dodd, Steve Davies, Nicky Banger, Phil Parkinson, really talented lads who all broke into the first team and went on to have good careers. Looking back I can’t believe how lucky I was to be part of that.

“Dave Merrington was in charge and he was a tough Geordie, really old school. He drove us all to be the best we could, as individuals and as a group. There was a real camaraderie there.

“When you grow up together and learn together then when you get out on the pitch you are ready to bust a gut and fight for each other. It gets you through games. It gets you points.

“It was a fantastic bunch of lads and we are all still very good friends and we all keep in touch even now.”

The midfielder had a solid career with the Saints, playing 200 games and scoring 20 goals. He featured in the 1992 Full Members Cup final - the ZDS - but lost to Nottingham Forest and was a first team fixture in an established top flight team. But then Bryan Robson called.

Face to face with Nicky Butt at Old Trafford

“The gaffer Dave Jones took me aside after training and said he’d had a call from Boro and they wanted to sign me,” he recalled. “I was really happy at Southampton but it didn’t take me long to decide.

“Big things were happening at Boro. Everyone in football knew about the ambition there. There was a feeling it was the start of something special.

“They had the new ground, Rockliffe was just being developed, Steve Gibson was putting money in, Robbo was attracting a lot of good players there. They had Andy Townsend, Paul Merson, Nigel Pearson. And when I talked to Robbo it was obvious they were thinking big. And I was a Boro fan! How could I turn it down?

“I’d stepped down a division but Boro were on the up. We were pushing for promotion and I felt we’d definitely go up. We did. And we went to Wembley in the League Cup final. It was a great start for me.

“Once we went up we brought in some real quality. It was a great time for the club and I was delighted to be there. I’d loved Southampton but it was brilliant to be back home and playing for Boro when so much was happening. I was buzzing to be honest.”

Neil Maddison in action for Boro

Robbo was looking to build a squad that gave him a lot of options and saw Maddison as a player who ticked a lot of boxes.

“Robbo said he liked that I was versatile and he wanted me to cover a few different roles - and he wasn’t joking.

“In my first four matches I played as a sweeper at Wolves, right-back against Portsmouth, in midfield at home to QPR and then up front at Norwich,” he recalled.

Being a utility player isn’t always a blessing. Maddison was in and out of a variety of slots and in his four years at Boro appeared just 67 times. But despite that the enthusiasm for the club was undiminished.

“I loved every minute at Boro,” he gushed. “I absolutely loved going in to work.

“Training was fantastic. Playing games was fantastic. Being part of the team was fantastic. The players, being in the ground, the supporters, everything... I loved it.

“Sometimes in football you have difficult times; your form dips, you’re not in the team, you’re struggling with an injury and you dread going in because the rest of lads are happy and joking but for me, every single day was unbelievable.

“And as a player you know when your time’s up, when better players are coming in to take your place, but even then, everything about the way the club dealt with me was fair and decent. I haven’t got a single complaint.”

After being released Maddison joined Darlington and played 120 games while doing his coaching badges then had stints as first assistant manager then joint manager during a turbulent time as the club unravelled financially.

Neil Maddison

“After that I fell lucky in a few things,” he said. “When Darlington went under I got a call from Middlesbrough College asking if I fancied doing something on their sports side. I’m still there now and I really enjoy it.

“Then I got a call from Ali Brownlee who asked if I fancied doing a few Monday night slots in the studio and enjoyed that too.

“Craig Hignett was the BBC Tees commentator then but I used to stand in for him when he was doing Sky or Five Live radio and I enjoyed that too.

“Then when Higgy left to join the Boro I was asked if I fancied taking over and I jumped at it. I grabbed it.

“I love commentating. I love everything about it. I love explaining the games and reflecting how it feels. If is boring I’ll say so but if it is exciting, I get excited. When they score sometimes I get a bit carried away and shout ‘get in there!’

“Ali, a very close friend and mentor who I still miss more than you can say, Ali always told me that you had to bring the whole experience of the game to life for the people at home and I try to do that.

“For me it is a wonderful job. I love following the team across the country, watching and commentating on games, being part of the matchday... in a lot of ways it is a substitute for being a player.

“I miss matchday and anyone who has ever been a player will tell you the same. The build up, the buzz, the butterflies, pulling the shirt on, the tingle running down the tunnel and out on to the pitch, I miss that so much."

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He adds: “Commentating is a bit like that. You are part of the matchday and the way it builds up and you get caught up in every second of the game.

“Look at the back end of last season. The intensity of the emotion being involved in that was exhausting. It was like that for the fans too, I know that, but we had to go through the emotional rollercoaster with microphones in front of us and live it for people sat at home.

“And I don’t mind admitting there were tears there at the end. It was such a relief.

“Now we are doing it the Premier League and that is fantastic. For me, for the club, for the supporters.

“I know I am really lucky to be doing something I love. My whole career has been like that.”